There’re a lot of reasons to love Dave Wachter’s art… He puts in a ton of research on his subject matter. His attention to detail is enthralling. His composition is spectacular. Yet at the same time, the end product is never cold or stiff. Each and every page is vibrant. I think that all comes from the passion Dave puts into his craft. He finds the heart of a story, and then breathes life into it.

And that comes straight from Bobby Curnow, who worked with Wachter on Night of 1000 Wolves from IDW. Literally, it comes straight from him, he emailed me last night to offer this praise for his collaborator, who is the fifth nominee for 2012’s Russ Manning Award.

Dave Wachter first came to IDW’s attention due to his Eisner-nominated webcomic ‘Guns of Shadow Valley’, co-created with Jim Andrew Clark. From there he moved on to pencil ‘That Hellbound Train’, a three-issue miniseries for IDW, before heading on to his current wolf-filled mini, which concludes this month.

And if his site is anything to go by, he apparently draws approximately five thousand sketches at every convention he goes to.

So there we have it! Five amazing artists, who are all surely only days away from drawing lovely pictures of Marvel’s greatest character DARKSTAR soon. Surely! The Russ Manning Award will be given out as part of this year’s Eisner Awards, during San Diego Comic-Con. Keep an eye out for the results, but keep the other eye (your left is typically the psychic one) trained to the future, because these five are very likely to show up again soon.

1 COMMENT

  1. Dave is fantastic. I’ve had the pleasure of reading his work from the beginning, and I am glad that the nomination has brought more attention to his work.

    And if you are at a convention with him, definitely get a sketch. I have some sketch cards from him that I love. His takes on monsters are especially strong (I love the Concrete that he did for me).